I wholeheartedly believe that there is no such thing as too many children’s books. I’ve streamlined my own bookshelves over the last few years, with only select favorites making the cut, but Charlie’s book collection continues to grow. . . and we couldn’t be happier about that!
It warms my book-loving mama heart to see how much Charlie has fallen in love with reading. Each morning, he rushes to his closet bookshelf to pick out a “special book” to peruse during his morning diaper change. Throughout the day, he will pick pull out books from their homes in his various toyboxes and find a cozy spot to sit down and read to himself. And some of my favorite moments are when we cuddle in our glider to read together. Sometimes we read the words, other times we just look at the pictures and make up our own stories. There’s usually a lot of singing and giggling involved.
Each month I share a roundup of the books I’ve been reading, but it’s been a while since I’ve written about Charlie’s latest reads. So today we have a Toddler Edition of the monthly Quick Lit. While Charlie has hundreds of books in his personal library, he tends to gravitate to the same favorites. These are five that have been getting a lot of love in recent weeks.
It’s Pumpkin Day Mouse: This is Charlie’s stand-out favorite. I bought it for him last Halloween and pulled it out again this October, and he just can’t get enough. The book features pumpkins demonstrating various emotions, so we have fun mimicking the faces and talking about what each of the pumpkins is feeling. Halloween may be over, but I have a feeling this book will be on heavy rotation for the foreseeable future.
Charleston’s Very Happy First Birthday: This customized book was our birthday gift to Charlie last year, and he absolutely loves it. But then, what child wouldn’t love a book that’s all about them?! The front of the book even has a picture of Charlie, so of course that’s his favorite part!
Moo, Baa, La La La!: We really like ALL of the Sandra Boynton books (my personal favorite is Snuggle Puppy), but Charlie particularly likes this one because he can say the title.
My First Animals: This animal pictorial doesn’t have a storyline, but it has provided many quality reading sessions as we point out the various animals and talk about each one. This book earns bonus points for featuring pictures of real animals, as opposed to the illustrated animals in most of our books.
No, No, Noah!: This retelling of Noah and the Ark is so much fun. Charlie loves it for all the animals, and I like its message of trusting God. It’s never too early to start instilling these Biblical truths!
Runners-up for books Charlie is favoriting these days include quite a few classics: Goodnight Moon; Brown Bear, Brown Bear; Love You Forever (I wish there was a board book version of this one!);Â and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He’s also been loving some lesser known titles including: Your Baby’s First Word Will Be DADA; Goodnight iPad; and the Disney Cars Board Book (even though he hasn’t seen the movie yet!).
If you have little ones, we’d love to know what books your kids are digging right now. We’re always looking for recommended titles to add to our overflowing shelves!